Clinic recognized
The Emporia Fresenius Medical Care Dialysis Clinic, 1201 W. 12th Ave., has been recognized as a Center of Excellence by Fresenius Medical Care for its accomplishments in 2006.
The Center of Excellence award is given in recognition of the achievements of the nurses, staff and physicians at the facility. Dr. Joseph Abdallah serves as the medical director at the FMC Emporia unit.
The is the eighth year that Fresenius Medical Care has recognized local dialysis clinics as Centers of Excellence.
3 now are trustees
Three Emporians are now beginning their service on the Emporia Community Foundation’s board of trustees. The three, who were appointed in July, are Diana Kuhlmann, appointed by the United Way of the Flint Hills; Bill Barnes, appointed by Newman Regional Health; and Chris Walker, an at-large member. All three are filling unexpired terms who moved from the community.
The trustees elected Jackie Scott and Chuck Hanna to fill unexpired terms on the board of directors.
The trustees also accepted the Frank Davis Jr. Scholarship Fund for inclusion in the foundation. The fund is a memorial that provides college scholarships for the children of farm families.
Downtown office open
Countrywide Home Loans has opened an office at 702 Commercial St., in Emporia. Shelia Hodson-Williams, who will operate the office, may be reached at 343-0955.
Countrywide is a part of Countrywide Financial Corp., headquartered in Calabasas, Calif.
Information about the company may be found online at www.countrywide.com.
Counselor of the year
Former Olpe resident Tristen Scheve Wendland of Colorado Springs, Colo., has been named the National Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor of the Year for the Veterans Association.
She is being recognized for a program she heads, “Coming Home to Work,” which helps injured soldiers who have returned home from Iraq and Afghanistan get into vocational rehabilitation and find jobs once they are ready.
Wendland will be honored at a ceremony at the National Veterans Association meeting Aug. 30 in San Diego, Calif.
She is the daughter of Richard and Janet Scheve of Olpe and Jim and Ann Mayo of Elmdale. She graduated from Olpe High School and Emporia State University with a master’s degree in counseling.
Her husband Maj. Christopher Wendland is on his second tour in Iraq.
Promoted in Air Guard
Reading native Sgt. Dena Jo Swisher of Auburn recently was promoted to Chief Master Sergeant in the Kansas Air National Guard, 190th Air Refueling Wing, at Forbes Air Force Base in Topeka.
She is the daughter of Bill and Ida Jones of Olpe and the late Lowell D. Swisher of Reading.
Swisher was deployed in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Upon her return, she was selected as a technician and continued to work on the flight line until late 1994. She then was deployed to Pisa, Italy, in support of Operation Deny Flight. She was selected as her unit’s ground safety manager in June 1998, a job she has held for the past 8 1/2 years.
She is a member of the Enlisted Association of the Kansas National Guard, the Air Force Sergeants Association and is a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Preserve gets grant
The Tallgrass Prairie Nation Preserve in Chase County has received a $10,000 grant to expand its educational programs and exhibits.
The challenge grant, from the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation, was awarded after the number of visitors to the preserve increased by more than 17 percent in one year..
The money will be used to buy historically accurate clothing and textbooks for the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse, create a Junior Rangers Kids Corner in the barn, produce site bulletins, expand the Traveling Trunk program and support new exhibits and displays.